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n11204   5.1 After the problem-solving rush of the previous scene, the fifth and final act slows pace as it sorts out the many remaining entanglements in the plot. Its first scene opens abruptly enough as OFFA, in violation of his previous promise to restrain his incestuous desires for three days, makes another attempt on his sister’s virtue. Just in time to save MILDRED from dishonour and/or death, EDITH enters to report the return from death of Anthynus – that is, Osric, unrecognised in his own royal person: like the Northumbrians, the West Saxons mistake the one man for the other. The women depart, giving Offa space for a brief soliloquy of devious and dastardly speculation. OSRIC enters, accompanied by his courtier ALFRID and a quintet of Offa’s household retainers, one of whom enters separately from the other four. Mistaking his royal guest for his own virtuous brother, Offa accuses him of murdering their father and orders the servants to attack. However, ARNOLD, the servant who has been distinguished from the others, refuses to shortcircuit due process of law, whereupon the new arrivals are escorted off to prison, there to await trial. Winding up the scene with another short soliloquy, Offa evinces satisfaction over the latest turn of events and concludes in a silly couplet. The second scene introduces three new characters: a CARPENTER, a MASON and a SMITH break into the subterranean chamber which they have built in Offa’s house. Brome builds in repeated reminders that the scene is dark; and, for reasons which he barely bothers to explain within the dramatic fiction, the trio are disguised as devils. Expecting to find treasure below the trap-door, the burglars instead bring up the two OUTLAWS whom Offa imprisoned there to starve to death. The darkness of the scene, the disguise of the burglars and the hunger of the prisoners occasion confusions. Intruders and prisoners resolve to depart the house together, but their departure is interrupted by the entrance of MILDRED, now pursued by EDITH, whom she persuades to accompany her in flight from Offa’s house and incestuous advances. Identities are again mistaken; and resolutions to escape are again made but then qualified by yet another entrance: this time it is made by OFFA, now losing his wits in wickedness and not seeing very well in the darkness. As the other seven characters slip by and exit ensemble, Offa remains to wind up the scene with another soliloquy, in which he determines merely to return to bed. The third scene returns to OSRIC, imprisoned with his travelling companion ALFRID, but now visited by ETHELSWIC and EDELBERT, who explain the displacement of his royal Northumbrian person by his aristocratic West Saxon double Anthynus. MILDRED arrives (with EDITH) to visit the prisoner. Thinking Osric to be Anthynus but also thinking Anthynus not to be her brother in blood, she has come to declare her love and to propose marriage, provided that he can prove that he has not committed parricide. He, recognising her as the subject of the portrait with which he became obsessed early in the play, replies in amorous kind. Within a dozen speeches (one of them indicating the presence of a priest in the next room), another wedding is about to take place, but Edith intervenes to say that Anthynus and Mildred are indeed siblings. The prison KEEPER enters to report that Queen Bertha has returned with her new husband, that Offa has gone mad, and that the prisoner is summoned to trial, for which all set off. The fourth scene, the last in the play, begins as the very first scene did, with BERTHA making a regal entry, to the sound of hautboys and in company with courtiers. This time, however, only two of the four courtiers are hers (KELRIC and ELKWIN): the other courtiers who enter with her are Northumbrian Lords (THEODWALD, EAUFRID, THEODRIC). This time, morever, Bertha is accompanied by a consort – who only appears to be the King of Northumbria. When ANTHYNUS reveals his true identity, Bertha defers to him as her husband. The KEEPER and a GUARD lead in the group who were last seen leaving prison, whereupon the Northumbrian courtiers all recognise OSRIC as their king. OFFA, bound in a chair, is carried on by ARNOLD and a SERVANT to rant about judicial corruption and to be reported to have accused himself of both the murder of Segebert and also the attempted rape of Mildred. Offa’s guilt in parricidal attempt – albeit not achievement – is confirmed by the entry of SEGEBERT with the HERMIT, the HERMIT’s SERVANT, OUTLAW 1, and JEFFREY: the Fool has found the others in the wilderness. (The identification of the Hermit as the exiled Alberto is despatched in two brief speeches.) Having delivered them to the court and discussed his reward with the Queen, Jeffrey departs with Offa and the madman’s two attendants. General pardon is granted to Outlaw 1 and his absent partners in crime. Queen Bertha proposes a month of hospitality and wedding festivity; King Osric accepts the invitation and implies a reciprocation; Anthynus gets the last word, which could stand as a summary description of tragicomic effect; and at least eighteen figures make the final exit. [go to text]

gg6181   peevish perverse, obstinate; coy (OED adj. 1) [go to text]

gg201   favour goodwill, kindness; partiality, approval, encouragement [go to text]

gs378   present immediate, current [go to text]

gg6182   backs mounts, rides on (OED back v, 10a) [go to text]

gg2870   precise puritanical (from being scrupulous in religious observance) [go to text]

gg6183   Formality. propriety; conformity to established rule (OED 6) [go to text]

gs922   late recently [go to text]

n11078   with a mischief? The prepositional phrase is a hostile expletive (OED mischief n, 2b): "damn it" or "damn you" would be equivalent. The contrast with Edith's proclamation of a `miracle' would be noticeable in performance. [go to text]

n11138   survived from death again! That is, come back from death, returned from the dead. Edith uses the word `again' in its now-obsolete sense (OED adv, 1a) as `in the opposite direction; back'. [go to text]

gg6219   Up to the hilts to the furthest degree possible (OED hilt n, 3) [go to text]

n11076   MILDRED [and] EDITH ex[it]. ]Ex. Mildred.Ex.Edith. 1657 Quarto places this stage direction three lines earlier, to the right of the last (half-)line in Edith's speech. [go to text]

gg6184   mistrust suspect (OED v. 4a) [go to text]

gs1858   faced me down impudently maintained (OED face v, 3a); lied to my teeth [go to text]

gs1860   tricks, stratagems, crafty or fraudulent devices (OED trick n, 1a) [go to text]

gs1879   action fight (OED n. 11a), attack [go to text]

gg6185   Shallow, superficial (OED a1, 6a) [go to text]

gs1125   fit match, meet (with the additional sense of doing so "fittingly", "aptly") [go to text]

n11077   OSRIC [dressed as a pilgrim], ALFRID and four SERVANTS enter [through one stage doorway, and] ARNOLD [enters through the other stage doorway]. ] Enter Osriick, Alfride, four Servants, at the other door Arnold. 1657 Quarto places this entrance half a line later -- after Osric's reaction to it. [go to text]

n10402   howe’er ] how e're [go to text]

gg6186   clearer more absolute (OED clear a, 17) [go to text]

gs1861   Perfidious treacherous [go to text]

gg1563   parricide, father-murderer [go to text]

gg6187   surprise sudden attack (OED v. 1) [go to text]

n11079   ’ll bear you out in’t. Urging his attendants to fall upon the visitor whom he thinks to be Anthynus, Offa promises to support the attack (OED bear v, 12a). The audience may recall Offa's blustering cowardice in combat with the true Anthynus in [QE 2.3.speech283], where he also had numerical advantage. [go to text]

gs712   Forbear cease, refrain (from) [go to text]

gs1862   outrage. violent behaviour; insolence (OED n. 1a) [go to text]

gg885   leave permission [go to text]

gs524   forbear, stop (this behaviour), desist [go to text]

gg6188   censured condemned (OED censure v, 5) [go to text]

gs1848   yet nevertheless [go to text]

n11081   [ARNOLD exits with OSRIC and ALFRID, guarded by SERVANTS.] ] Exeunt. [They go out.] Wood: Exeunt all except Offa. [go to text]

n11103   5.2 Video Giving no indication of scene divisions for Act 5 after the initial `Act. V.Scen.I.', 1657 Quarto does not mark a scene break here, nor does Wood add one. However, Offa's exit has completely depopulated the stage; and the time now changes (from day to night), while the venue shifts (from somewhere in Offa's household to somewhere else, probably belowstairs, there). The workshop session for this scene on 28 June 2007 culminated in a rough-costumed run-through. After only an hour's work with the actors and even on an inappropriate stage, this run-through demonstrated the comic structure and force of the scene so persuasively that the entirety of it has been incorporated into this edition The video material which is used with reference to particular points in the scene was recorded, without costumes, earlier in the same session. [go to text]

n11082   [who are costumed as] devils ]in devils habits. 1657 Quarto's phrase implies the existence, not just of an established iconography for devils, but of recognisable costumes for actors playing them. Precisely where these thieving workmen may be supposed to have procured their outfits is not indicated, but this consideration is quite minor alongside other implausibilities in this scene. Such a costume appears to be represented on the illustrated title page of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's masque The World Tossed at Tennis. Performed by the Prince Charles' (I) Men early in the 1620s, this masque was played by Beeston's Boys at the Cockpit/Phoenix in 1639. [On this point of costume, see R.A.Foakes, Illustrations of the English Stage 1580-1642 (London: Scolar Press, 1985), 120-1.] The workmen's devil costumes in The Queen's Exchange, however, must incorporate cloaks (or loose coats) for their concealment of Mildred and Edith later in the scene [QE 5.2.speech751]; and the masque image shows nothing of the sort. [go to text]

n11141   [and bring with them] ] with [go to text]

gg6189   dark-lanthorns, lanterns with slides or other arrangements by which light can be concealed (OED dark-lantern) [go to text]

gs1863   engine mechanical contrivance (OED 4) [go to text]

n11200   fastened to a post, In an article on `Descent Machinery in the Playhouses’, John Astington cites this scene as evidence `that a man could be lowered and lifted by a fairly simple portable device’ and speculates that Brome `perhaps took his idea from contemporary burglars’ techniques’. One device which Astington considers is `a crane arm (the “Post” ) and attached windlass’: this is rejected as `fairly awkward for two men to manage’. Astington thinks it `more likely that the “Engine” and “Rope” are blocks and tackle, and that the “Post ” is some kind of frame from which the tackle could be made to hang’ (Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 2 [1986], 123-4). Either device, however, would have to be capable of sustaining the weight of two men and would be cumbersome for the actors to carry as a personal prop. The syntax of the stage direction invites the hypothesis that the device awaits them onstage: `Enter Carpenter, Mason, Smith in Divels habits; two Lanthorns, a Pickaxe and a rope, with an Engine fastned to a post, and a bunch of picklocks.’ The prepositional phrase `with an Engine fastned to a post’ could function merely as an explanation of the rope which is part of their portable equipment. In their Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama 1580-1642 Alan Dessen and Leslie Thomson take this post to be `one of the stage posts or pillars supporting the heavens'. If that is what it is, however, then it is a late instance: this phrase from The Queen's Exchange is the next to latest example they give, William Rider's The Twins being the only other play from the 1630s to be cited for this sense. The presence of stage pillars in any of the theatres for which Brome is likely to have written The Queen's Exchange is far from certain, however, and it may be that in this instance the term designates some other architectural feature. (The frontispiece to Francis Kirkman’s The Wits appears to show a performance underway on a stage, which may be that of the Red Bull Theatre: the gallery above the stage in this image is divided by posts, two on either side.) The post might even have been a piece of stage furniture. (A woodcut on the title-page of the 1620 quarto imprint of Swetnam the Woman-hater Arraigned by Women, performed at the Red Bull, shows the trial scene in Act 4 of the play. The foreground of the image is dominated by an elaborately turned post, six to six and a half feet high, which forms part of the improvised bar at which Swetnam is arraigned. It also sees service as a tree.) On the other hand, the syntax of the stage direction also permits the hypothesis that the burglars do indeed carry on all their burgling gear: the latter half of the Carpenter’s long speech ([QE 5.2.speech 714]) would give them just about enough time to set up their engine, and his next speech ([QE 5.2.speech717]) could cue some quick testing of its safety. This hypothesis raises the problem of whether or not the burglars would dismantle the mechanism and carry it away when they exit: as two of them will each be concealing another actor under his costume, and trying to walk in tandem with that companion, their getting the engine offstage looks unlikely. However, if the thing were to remain onstage (a possibility on either hypothesis), then it might well be put to further use by the actor of Offa during his comically crazed soliloquy ([QE 5.2.speech769]) at the end of this scene. [go to text]

gg853   Whist! hush, keep silent (OED int, 1) [go to text]

gg2373   timorous fearful [go to text]

gs1864   shapes costumes [go to text]

gg5893   politic cunning, scheming [go to text]

gs1865   sure, safe, secure [go to text]

gg859   warrant assure, promise [go to text]

n11105   Prayers become this coat, like swearing in a surplice. The speaker and his companions are wearing devil outfits, so the analogy is ironic: praying when one is costumed as a devil is as indecorous as swearing when one is dressed for church services. [go to text]

gg6191   surplice. loose, wide-sleeved vestment of white linen worn by clerics, choristers, and others taking part in church services (OED) [go to text]

gg6190   usual ordinary (OED adj. 3a) [go to text]

gs1866   cry mercy, beg pardon (sarcastically) [go to text]

gs1867   shrewdly, sharply, harshly (OED adv. 3) [go to text]

gs1868   doubt suspect (OED v. 6b) [go to text]

n11083   the dairymaid and he were jumbling of a posset together. The literal statement is that the couple were shaking up a warm beverage incorporating milk, alcohol, sweetener and flavouings -- a kind of syllabub or eggnog. The figurative sense is of course that they were engaged in vigorous sexual copulation. The image is multiply appropriate: the dairymaid has an occupational association with milk products; the transferred sense of the verb `to jostle' as `to fuck' goes back to at least the early 15th century; and possets were variously associated with bedtime -- as soporifics, as aphrodisiacs, and as post-partum restoratives. [go to text]

n11106   picklocks: Video Picklocks are instruments for picking locks (OED): a ring of them is the only part of this team's burgling gear which is potentially noisy. When this possibility emerged in the workshop session on this scene, it was seen to serve both characterisation of the Smith and comic business: this soft-hearted coward, unable to to control his fearful trembling, persisted in noisily shaking his picklocks. See clip [go to text]

gs1871   squares marks out in rectangular form (OED square v, 1c and 1d) [go to text]

n11104   here is the trap-door, As for the first scene in the preceding act [QE 4.1.speech532], a functional trap is required for this scene. [go to text]

n11107   That is, when they make such concavities as these, for rich men to hide their treasure in, that they make also a privy way for themselves to come and take a share on’t. The carpenter claims that it is common practice for builders to moonlight as burglars: returning to their own work as insider raiders, they secure access to subterranean treasuries via hidden routes which they have incorporated in these constructions. [go to text]

gg6192   piddle: nibble; mess about (OED v. 1c and 1a) [go to text]

gs216   above more than [go to text]

n11136   a thousand pounds Wood points out that the Carpenter's estimate is `an anachronistic reference to Caroline currency'. According to the National Archives' online currency converter, £1000 in 1630 would now (17 August 2009) be worth £89,160. [go to text]

gs1136   handsomely. carefully, gently (OED 3b) [go to text]

gg859   warrant assure, promise [go to text]

n11108   we get off clear escape clean away [go to text]

n11109   I have three bastards at nurse and a fourth in the panniers. The speaker has fathered four illegitimate children by as many different women: three are young enough that they are still being breastfed, and a fourth is as yet in utero. Panniers being baskets or other containers used for transporting food or other commodities, the Mason's phrase is the equivalent of `a bun in the oven'. Middleton had embodied the joke in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (performed [1612], printed 1630): a character identified only as `Wench' disposes of a unwanted infant by hiding it under a leg of mutton in a basket which she gets other characters to take from her. [go to text]

gs1872   light below standard weight (OED adj. 1b) -- and thus probably counterfeit or clipped coinage [go to text]

gg6195   gold: coin(s) made of gold; large sums of money (OED gold 1, 2a) [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

gs29   but only [go to text]

gg576   ’Slid, a common seventeenth-century oath derived from an abbreviation of ‘God’s eyelid’ and the idea of the deity’s all-seeing eye [go to text]

gs896   cozen cheat, defraud [go to text]

gg6193   ghastly pale, death-like, wan; terrible (OED adj. 2 and 1a) [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

n11198   Yes, but we have played the devils till we have got a spirit betwixt us. The Mason's speech is a metatheatrical reference to the story of an extra devil appearing among the actors during a performance of Dr.Faustus. The incident was supposed to have happened decades earlier, before Richard Brome's birth, even before Christopher Marlowe's death. However, William Prynne had invoked it as late as 1633 in his Histrio-Mastix, an attack on the stage with which Brome was evidently familiar. For the relevant passage from Prynne, see G.Wickham, H.Berry and W.Ingram, eds., English Professional Theatre, 1530-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 303. [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

n11137   pie-pecked, crow-trod, or sparrow-blasted? The emaciated appearance of Outlaw 2 suggests to the Mason that the man has been attacked by birds (magpies, crows and sparrows) in unsuccessful competition for food. [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

gg2188   pined wasted/exhausted by suffering (OED a) [go to text]

gg6194   stay sustain (OED v2. 1) [go to text]

gg2706   mastiff ‘a breed of large, powerful dog with a broad head, drooping ears, and pendulous lips, used as a guard dog and for fighting’ (OED n. 1a) [go to text]

n11111   Outlaw [3] ]2.Outl. (Wood: Third Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

n10361   whate’er ] what e're [go to text]

gg5618   members parts of the body; sexual organs [go to text]

gg6196   moment: importance (OED n. 5) [go to text]

n11112   gone down glib Video The Carpenter puns on different senses of `glib' -- as an adverb meaning `easily' or `smoothly' and as a verb meaning `castrate'. The threat to the Carpenter's genitals was visible in the 29 June 2007 workshop session on this scene . [go to text]

gg5072   subtlety craftiness, cunning [go to text]

gs1032   politic cunning, scheming, crafty [go to text]

n11139   [Mason] ] Smith 1657 Quarto brackets the entrance of Edith and Mildred with speeches by the Smith. This second speech better befits the Mason, whose minimal characterisation includes a concern, voiced even from his first utterance, about noise levels: see [QE 5.2.speech708], [QE 5.2.speech743]and [QE 5.2.speech747]. [go to text]

n11140   Enter MILDRED and EDITH. 1657 Quarto presents this stage direction a line earlier, between [QE 5.2.speech744] and [QE5.2.speech745]. [go to text]

gg6197   sprites? disembodied spirits, ghosts; supernatural beings, fairies (OED spright n1, 2) [go to text]

n11113   No evil ones, I’ll warrant: they are so white. Although it may be a comment on their feminine complexions, the line suggests that Mildred and Edith are costumed in linen shifts. [go to text]

gg281   wantonness. lasciviousness [go to text]

n11114   since ] once 1657 Quarto reading makes no sense, and this emendation assumes a plausible misreading of manuscript letter formation. [go to text]

gs1873   maidenheads, female virginities [go to text]

n11115   Well, since you are so resolute, would we Were out of the house, since if we be taken, ’Tis not the price of a million of maidenheads, As the market goes, can save our lives. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as verse, but breaks the lines after: of the; price of; save. Wood prefers prose. [go to text]

gg6197   sprites disembodied spirits, ghosts; supernatural beings, fairies (OED spright n1, 2) [go to text]

n11116   stiff standing bedstead A standing bedstead is a term, now obsolete, for a high bedstead, as distinguished from a truckle-bed (OED standing ppl a, 5b). The word `stiff' functions as an adverb in this phrase, where it generates an obvious innuendo on the participial adjective `standing' as `erected' (penis). [go to text]

gg667   Peace, (int.) be quiet; keep calm [go to text]

n11117   bustlepate? This appears to be a `hapax legomenon' -- a word of which only one instance is recorded. This is the only instance given by the OED, where it is tentatively defined as `?a bustling person'. It appears to be a nonce coinage by the Carpenter. [go to text]

n11118   stout blade’s That is, `energetic fellow', with a figurative innuendo as `strong penis': either way, the Carpenter is teasing the women about the sexual prowess of the butler from whose bed he thinks them to have come. [go to text]

n11199   therefore ] there afore (Emendation follows Wood) OED lists `afore' as a variant of `fore' or `for' in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. [go to text]

n11119   (Ent[er] OFFA [with] light and dagger.) (Ent.Offa, light and Dagger.)1657 Quarto presents this stage direction two lines later, in the middle of Offa's first speech. The relocation, which follows Wood, is for the benefit of readers. It is possible, however, that Offa starts speaking offstage and becomes visible as he utters the threat which is his third line. The dagger that the stage direction puts in his hand would be appropriately ominous, and the light that the direction also requires him to carry would sustain the indication of darkness onstage. From the beginning of this scene, darkness has been signalled by the dark lanterns that are specified for the burglars at their entry: see the stage direction after [QE 5.2.speech707]. No particular kind of light being indicated for Offa, a candle seems probable, but a torch is also possible. [go to text]

gs1874   out of countenance. into shamed confusion [go to text]

n11110   Outlaw [2] ]1.Outl. (Wood: Second Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

gg3647   ’Sdeath! mild oath, meaning by God's death [go to text]

n11111   Outlaw [3] ]2.Outl. (Wood: Third Outlaw) Of the three Outlaws in Offa's employ during 2.2, the first was rescued by the Hermit and his Servant at the end of that scene. His companions, who said nothing in 2.2, are labelled 1 and 2 by 1657 Quarto when they speak in 4.1 and 5.2: they have been renumbered 2 and 3. [go to text]

gs443   fall to set to work, make a start [go to text]

n11120   Look big, Video Outlaw 2 having just proposed to throw himself upon Offa in revenge, the Carpenter here calls for quiet and tells the Outlaws to express their aggression only in their manner of looking at Offa as they slide noiselessly by him. In the 29 June 2007 workshop session on this scene, discussion of the blocking of this exit threw up the suggestion that the Carpenter's command can also refer to the appearance of the burglars who hide the women under their devil costumes . Such doubletalk is characteristic of the Carpenter's speech: see [NOTE n11112]. [go to text]

n11121   [MASON and SMITH hide MILDRED and EDITH under their devil costumes, and then CARPENTER, MASON, SMITH, MILDRED, EDITH, OUTLAW 2 and OUTLAW 3 all proceed to exit.] Video ] (Hide the women under their habits, and so Exeunt all but Offa.) (Wood: The women hide under their habits; exeunt all the others except Offa.) 1657 Quarto presents this stage direction later, three lines into Offa's speech (see after [QE 5.2.line3601]), and Wood does not move it. The reasons for resituating the direction are that (i) it is cued by the immediately preceding speech by the Carpenter, and (ii) the fourth line of Offa's speech suggests that the others are gone or going. The stage direction calls for business, and the exit requires seven people to depart: this will all take time, the more so when silence must be ostentatiously, and doubtless unsuccessfully, attempted. The 29 June 2007 workshop session on this scene relished the counterpointing of that exit with the first four lines of Offa's speech . [go to text]

gg4360   coy shy, disdainful [go to text]

gs1875   damosel. alternative form of `damsel', here used as a mock-respectful term of address to a young, unmarried woman [go to text]

n11122   I am tottering left Upon an earthquake. Offa's speech evinces problems with walking, and in performance these would be visually explained. The minimal explanation is that he is stumbling around in the dark, a circumstance of which the lantern in his hand will be a reminder. He may collide with the winch which the burglars have used and may not have removed. He may step upon an imperfectly fastened trapdoor. Wood suggests that Offa is `possibly showing the effects of drinking or derangement'. The latter condition is likely: at his next appearance Offa will be under physical restraint as a lunatic, and his speech at this point is none too sane. Drunkenness, however, is virtually the only vice which the play does not elsewhere impute to this absurdly overstated villain. [go to text]

gs1876   Gentle! (adverbial use) gently, slowly, softly [go to text]

gg6198   Holla! Stop! Cease! (OED int, 1) [go to text]

n11124   Set not too hard, old Ops, thou’lt shake thy rider Offa speaks as if he were uncertainly seated on a frisky horse: Wood suggests that he is `perhaps playing the part of the gallant knight on horseback to Mildred's "damsel"'. The joke may be that the actor is simply sitting on the ground, or he may have more or less mounted the mechanism which the burglars have used for descent into his treasure-chamber. (See [NOTE n11200].) The latter possibility would position Offa near the trapdoor through which he explicitly fears falling. [go to text]

gg6199   Set start off, begin to move (OED v1. 106) [go to text]

n11123   Ops, An ancient Roman divinity, Ops personified the riches -- mineral as well as vegetable -- of the earth. [go to text]

gg6201   chinky full of fissures or cracks [go to text]

gg6202   wrinkles ridges (OED wrinkle n1, 2b and 2c) [go to text]

n11125   Limbo. Limbo was the posthumous destination of good people (such as virtuous adults who died before the Christian era and innocent infants who died unbaptised thereafter) who missed heaven through bad timing rather than any individual fault of their own. Offa being anything but good, he is using the term in two of its extended senses: insofar as he is insanely addressing a pagan deity, Ops, it signifies Hades (OED 1c); and insofar as he is guiltily remembering the subterranean chamber to which he had consigned the outlaws, it signifies an unfavourable place of neglect or oblivion (OED 2b). [go to text]

gg6200   piecemeal in separate pieces [go to text]

n11126   That has but now disgorged those famished ghosts, That with the Furies would have beckoned me Offa's lines certainly indicate that he has glimpsed Outlaws 1 and 2, whom he believes to have died of starvation in their subterranean trap and whom he has therefore seen as ghosts. The lines also strongly suggest that he has caught sight too of the Outlaws’ companions in flight through the dark and that he has construed the three burglars in their devil costumes as the Furies, avenging spirits who in classical Greek mythology paid special attention to bloodcrimes within families. [go to text]

gg6203   time enough soon enough, in good time (OED time n, 36) [go to text]

n11127   5.3 Giving no indication of scene divisions for Act 5 after the initial `Act. V.Scen.I.', 1657 Quarto does not mark a scene break here, nor does Wood add one. Offa's exit, however, has completely depopulated the stage. The fictional place has moved to a prison, which may or may not be within Offa's household but is certainly not where the burglars broke in in the previous scene. The figures who proceed to enter include Osric: last seen being escorted off to prison [QE 5.1.speech707], he now complains of being in prison [QE 5.3.speech772]; and mention will be made of an adjacent room in which a priest is singing catches with prisoners [QE 5.3.speech791]. And as there are no indications of darkness, the fictional time has also moved on. [go to text]

n11128   [EDELBERT] ] EDELRED (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

n11129   [Whose] ]Whilst (Emendation posits an easy misreading of manuscript letter formation.) [go to text]

gg6205   oblique aberrant (OED adj. 3c) [go to text]

n11142   uncouth ] unquoth (Emendation follows Wood's note.) OED does not recognise 1657 Quarto spelling: the sense here is `unfamiliar, unaccustomed, strange' (OED a, 2). [go to text]

n10309   human ] humane (according to the OED, a possible spelling from the 15th century to the 18th century) [go to text]

gg6206   countercheck check or arrest by counteraction (OED v. 2) [go to text]

gs633   expedition! haste in getting business settled [go to text]

n11143   o’er-busy ore-busie [go to text]

gs1893   strong firmly convinced (OED adj. 13j) [go to text]

gg302   conceit notion [go to text]

gs1880   Strong flagrantly guilty (OED adj. 11e) [go to text]

gs122   else otherwise [go to text]

gg6207   post courier; messenger (OED n3. 2a and 2b) [go to text]

gs1900   still? now as formerly (OED adv. 4) [go to text]

n11144   his, that is, his (Anthynus') person [go to text]

n11145   Ent[er] MILDRED [and EDITH]. Mildred's arrival is left unexplained. Wood, who does not divide this scene from its predecessor, amplifies 1657 Quarto with `Mildred comes out from hiding' here within Osric's speech ([QE 5.3.speech778]) and then provides an identical direction for Edith after [QE 5.3.speech792]. However, (1)there is nothing in the dialogue to indicate that, let alone where, either lady may have been hiding since their escape together from Offa's clutches; and (2) there is also nothing to indicate that they have parted from each other's company since then. Edith has to observe the amorous exchange between Mildred and Anthynus: she interrupts them when a marriage begins to appear imminent ([QE 5.3.speech791]). [go to text]

gs1881   recreations. pleasures, entertainments, comforts [go to text]

gs1882   high grave, serious (OED adj. 6b) [go to text]

gs1883   dissimulation; dissembling; feigning [go to text]

gg6208   Lo, look, see, behold (OED int1, 1b) [go to text]

n11147   Were I sole monarchess of all this island, Anglo-Saxon England was divided into different kingdoms. Their number contracted, from seven to two, by fits and starts across half a millennium, in which The Queen’s Exchange is not at all precisely located. (The fact that the play mentions only the kingdoms of the Northumbrians and the West Saxons is no help: these two were the longest-lived.) The system did not, however, extend to the entire island. Even as it contradicts dramatic fact, then, Mildred's hypothesis exceeds historical fact: she is not queen, and reign over all the island was beyond the reach of any Anglo-Saxon monarch. At the same time, of course, she speaks to the situation of Stuart kings. [go to text]

gg6209   monarchess female ruler, queen [go to text]

gg4736   catches rounds in which the words are so arranged that one singer picks up the word[s] of another (OED n1. 14) [go to text]

gg6210   Withhold hold back [go to text]

gg6217   uncapable of disqualified from [go to text]

gs1885   spurging laxative [go to text]

n11150   Comfits ]comfects 1657 Quarto reading is a possible but less familiar spelling. The term designates sweetmeats made of some fruit, root, etc., preserved with sugar (OED comfit n, 1). The suggestion is that Offa's childhood naughtiness ran to nastiness. [go to text]

n11201   Jove, Chief of the classical Roman gods, corresponding to Zeus in the Greek pantheon. [go to text]

n11151   it?[To KEEPER]Now? ]it? now. (Wood: it? Now.) [go to text]

gg6211   bribe-free, incorruptible; incapable of being bribed [go to text]

gg6212   white spotless (OED adj. 7) [go to text]

gs1887   quit exonerate (OED v. 7a) [go to text]

gs1888   carry take captive (OED v. 5b), arrest, charge [go to text]

gg576   ’Slid! a common seventeenth-century oath derived from an abbreviation of ‘God’s eyelid’ and the idea of the deity’s all-seeing eye [go to text]

gg6213   besides out of his normal mental state (OED besides prep, 5a) [go to text]

n11152   the strangeliest ] the strangliest (That is, in the oddest manner.) [go to text]

gg6197   sprites disembodied spirits, ghosts; supernatural beings, fairies (OED spright n1, 2) [go to text]

gs1394   anon. soon, in good time [go to text]

gs1889   part piece of conduct, act (OED n1. 14) [go to text]

gg6214   totter. swing from the gallows (OED v. 1b) [go to text]

n11133   [KEEPER, OSRIC, MILDRED, ETHELSWIC,EDITH, ALFRID and ETHELBERT exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n11132   5.4 Giving no indication of scene divisions for Act 5 after the initial `Act. V.Scen.I.', 1657 Quarto does not mark a scene break here, nor does Wood add one. However, the stage has been completely cleared by the departure, to trial, of Osric, escorted by the Keeper and accompanied by Mildred, Edith, Ethelswic, Alfrid and Ethelbert. That party will re-enter in the final scene [QE 5.4.speech835]. [go to text]

n11153   Hautboys [sound offstage while a throne is pushed out or revealed.] ] Hoboys. Wood: `Enter...to the musical accompaniment of hautboys.' The sound links this scene to the opening of the first scene in the play. [go to text]

n11154   Enter THEODWALD and EAUFRID, KELRIC and ELKWIN, THEODRIC, ANTHYNUS and BERTHA. The pairing of the entrants marks this as a processional entry, with ceremonial sequence linking it to the matrimonial dumbshow near the end of the last act: see [QE4.2.speech662]. [go to text]

n11134   All ] Omn. (Abbreviation of Omnes, Latin pronoun, third-person plural) [go to text]

n11134   All ] Omn. (Abbreviation of Omnes, Latin pronoun, third-person plural) [go to text]

n10384   e’er ] e're [go to text]

gs1877   provident characterised by foresight (OED 1a) [go to text]

gs1878   providence divine care or guidance (OED n. 3) [go to text]

n11135   [Gesturing for ANTHYNUS to sit enthroned, BERTHA kneels before him; and then he lifts her to her feet.] ] (She sets him down, and kneels; he takes her up.) Wood glosses `sets him down' as follows: `invites Anthynus to kneel; he obliges.' Such an invitation makes no sense in the dramatic situation; and acceptance of the invitation would, in conjunction with the business required by the rest of the stage direction, present a gymnastic challenge to the actor of Anthynus. [go to text]

gs1890   cockscombs fools [go to text]

n11155   Your sulphurous malice kindled the Queen’s anger. The image is richer than its auditors deserve. The primary sense (OED a, 2b) of the adjective derives from sulphur as an ingredient of gunpowder: the courtiers' malice has fired the royal anger. Figuratively, it signifies both: `hellish' (OED a, 3a), through the association of brimstone with notions of hell; and 'fiery' or `heated' (OED a, 3b) through the heat of its flame. Perhaps also in play is the foul smell of sulphur. [go to text]

n11156   Who’ll have an head now for an halfpenny? Elkwin, who anticipates punishment for his part against Segebert, jokingly offers to sell his own head for a halfpenny, that being what his life looks to be worth. (A halfpenny was 1/240 of a pound: the equivalent in 2009 of a halfpenny in 1630 would be about 37p.) Kelric, similarly pessimistic about his prospects, proposes to extend the offer to include his own at the same low price: a halfpenny was worth two farthings. The smallest coin in the realm, farthings were sufficiently scarce that for some years the supply had been supplemented by issues of stamped brass discs which had a notional value of a farthing. In the early Stuart period, the best known of these tokens were called Harringtons after the courtier to whom King James I in 1613 awarded a monopoly on manufacture: the venture failed, and the tokens were derided. [go to text]

n11156   for t’other two tokens, mine into the bargain. Elkwin, who anticipates punishment for his part against Segebert, jokingly offers to sell his own head for a halfpenny, that being what his life looks to be worth. (A halfpenny was 1/240 of a pound: the equivalent in 2009 of a halfpenny in 1630 would be about 37p.) Kelric, similarly pessimistic about his prospects, proposes to extend the offer to include his own at the same low price: a halfpenny was worth two farthings. The smallest coin in the realm, farthings were sufficiently scarce that for some years the supply had been supplemented by issues of stamped brass discs which had a notional value of a farthing. In the early Stuart period, the best known of these tokens were called Harringtons after the courtier to whom King James I in 1613 awarded a monopoly on manufacture: the venture failed, and the tokens were derided. [go to text]

n11203   [MILDRED], 1657 Quarto does not give an entrance for Mildred in this scene, but it will require her to speak in the course of it [QE 5.4.speech 892] and near the end of the previous scene, Mildred promised to accompany Osric to his trial [QE 5.3.speech819]. [go to text]

n11128   [EDELBERT], ] EDELRED (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

n11202   OFFA, bound in a chair, [is carried onstage by ARNOLD and SERVANT] ] Offa brought bound in a Chair. 1657 Quarto presents this stage direction after the speech ([QE 5.4.speech849]) by Arnold, for whom it provides no entrance. Arnold, who is Offa's servant, was last seen seeing off Osric and Alfrid, under guard, from the household of his master in the opening scene of this act [QE5.1.speech 707]. It is possible that he has entered this final scene with Osric, the Keeper, Guard et al. after [QE 5.4.speech835]; but Arnold was not named with them among the prison population in the immediately previous scene, nor did he speak then. The dialogue here is about to indicate that Arnold has observed Offa's recent ravings ([QE5.4.speech 850]), and a subsequent stage direction will send Arnold offstage with Offa: see [QE5.4.line3991]. It therefore seems reasonable that Arnold should accompany Offa in making this entrance -- but probably anticipate his master by just enough to be seen to hear Osric's assertion ([QE 5.4.speech847]) that he is neither Anthynus nor guilty of Segebert's murder. Moving the entrance makes Bertha's exclamation ([QE 5.4.speech848]) a reaction to the sight of Offa bound in his chair. [go to text]

n11130   I know what Æacus loves, what Minos likes, And what will make grave Rhadamanthus run. Imagining himself to be in Hades, the afterworld of classical Greek mythology, Offa claims to be able to tailor bribes to suit each of the panel of judges whom he will face: Æacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthus. All three were sons of Zeus and had had extensive experience of administering justice -- Æacus as ruler of the island Aegina, which bore the name of his mother; Minos as ruler of Crete; and Rhadamanthus as ruler of the Cyclades. Offa's anticipation of offering bribes in the underworld contrasts with the assurance of judicial incorruptibility which was given his brother in the preceding scene [QE 5.3.speech806]. [go to text]

gg2573   distracted. maddened, deranged [go to text]

gs448   heinous terrible, horrible [go to text]

gg750   outrageous wicked, evil; violent, furious; immoderate [go to text]

n11157   (Enter SEGEBERT [still carrying Offa's sword], [HERMIT, HERMIT'S SERVANT,] JEFFREY, OUTLAW [1]) ] (Enter Segebert, Alberto, Jeff. Outlaw.) The presence of the Hermit's Servant among this last group of entrants is indicated by Jeffrey's presentation of him at [QE 5.4.speech866]. The Hermit's identity as Alberto will not be revealed until [QE 5.4.speech881]. The sword will be needed by Segebert for [5.4.speech891. [go to text]

gg6215   vild; vile [go to text]

n11158   these old men,[Presenting the HERMIT'S SERVANT]this knave, I bring Together with[Presenting OUTLAW 1]this starveling, The old men can only be Segebert and the Hermit, who in [QE 5.4.speech 881] will be identified as Alberto. Wood thinks that the knave is one of the old men (Segebert) and the starveling is the other (Alberto), but this identification strains both syntax and decorum beyond the bounds even of Fool-speak. The knave and the starveling are probably the Hermit's Servant and Outlaw 1 -- or perhaps vice versa. The first speech uttered by the Hermit's Servant was his protest at being underfed [QE 2.3.speech303]; and the exclamation that will be the last utterance of Outlaw 1 [QE 5.4.speech883] suggests that, even after being rescued, he has remained -- and presumably appears -- hungry. [go to text]

gg2270   quick alive [go to text]

n11205   Look this way, Fool: this is King Osric, man. 1657 Quarto presents as two verse lines, broken after `fool'. (Relineation follows Wood.) [go to text]

n11160   A thousand crowns; A crown was a coin (once gold, subsequently silver) to the value of five shillings, so a thousand crowns would equal £250: that sum in 1630 would be equivalent in worth to about £22,300 in 2009. [go to text]

gs1901   favourite one chosen as an intimate of a superior (OED n. 2) [go to text]

n11159   [ARNOLD and SERVANT exit, carrying OFFAin his chair and accompanied by JEFFREY.] ] Ex. Arn. Offa, Jeffrey. [go to text]

gg6216   extant, in existence (OED adj. 4), alive [go to text]

gs1896   strong powerful in operative effect (OED adj. 10) [go to text]

gs1892   delivery, deliverance [go to text]

gg6204   jewel-house. treasury [go to text]

gg2329   triumphs public celebrations, pageants, processions [go to text]

n11283   [THEODWALD, EAUFRID, KELRIC, ELKWIN, THEODRIC, ANTHYNUS, BERTHA, KEEPER, OSRIC, MILDRED, ETHELSWIC, EDITH, ALFRID, EDELBERT, SEGEBERT, HERMIT, HERMIT'S SERVANT and OUTLAW 1 exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n11131   Deus dedit his quoque Finem. The Latin phrase, which means `God has given an end to these things as well,’ adapts part of a line in Book I of Vergil’s Æeneid: `dabit deus his quoque finem’ (`god will give an end to these things as well’). The tense of the verb is not the only difference from the original: the god of whom the sentence is predicated has also changed. In the Vergilian narrative context, the statement is an encouragement to the Trojan exiles: Aeneas is reminding his companions that they have already overcome other hardships, and that these too shall pass, with the help of Neptune. When the sentence is predicated of the Christian God, the sense of `finis’ or `end’ becomes ambivalent as `purpose’ and as `termination’. The latter sense is dominant when, as here, the tag serves as an explicit marking the conclusion of a text. For other instances of its being so used in early Stuart texts, see Matthew Steggle, Richard Brome: Place and Politics on the Caroline Stage (Manchester University Press, 2004), pp. 178-180. [go to text]

n11282   F I N I S. [THE] END. [go to text]

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